I opened a traditional IRA, now I’m not sure what’s next….

[magnus359]

I opened a new traditional IRA. I rolled over two old 401k from previous employers. Now the money has been successfully moved my IRA. What is next? I know this sounds silly but I feel there is a next step but I don’t see anything obvious. Don’t I choose what the IRA is invested in?? I know I’ve missed something somewhere……thanks for any advice!!

Edit: to clarify, I am wondering if I invest with SoFi because I opened the traditional IRA with them?? Bc I’m not understanding SoFi investment navigation.

 

[resjudicata]

@magnus359 Yes, you will need to choose investments because it probably just defaulted to a holding account. Who did you roll it over to?

 

[bamedrano]

@magnus359 Yes, right now your IRA is full of cash (most likely). You will need to go in and choose what to invest in.

IRAs (in my experience) work closer to a regular brokerage account than a 401(k). In most 401(k)'s I've dealt with, you go in and choose from a list what you want to invest in, and it does it all for you.

In your IRA, you will have to place trades. So you can't say you want 50% in fund X and 50% in fund Y, you will have to say I want $X in fund X, and $Y in fund Y, or X shares of X and Y shares of Y (depending on what you're buying and what brokerage you have).

As far as what to invest in, that's harder to answer. I'm personally a fan of the /r/Bogleheads approach.

 

[resjudicata]

@magnus359 You should have had to select investment options when you rolled over, if you didn’t, you’ll need to. No big deal, pick from the funds available to you that have long track records. Keep it simple and just keep investing over time.

 

[ulrichgood]

@magnus359 Stupid question here along the same lines…. If I opened a Roth IRA through my employer do I still need to choose? Or is that done automatically with fidelity since that’s where my Roth and 401k are

 

[breety]

@ulrichgood A Roth IRA is not through your employer, did you mean Roth 401k?

 

[ulrichgood]

@breety Sorry for the confusion. So for my 401k my company uses fidelity. Through the same portal where I can adjust my contribution for 401k I can also do a Roth IRA which I’m contributing to after taxes. But thinking about it I never actually selected anything to invest it in just assumed they would do it similar to the 401k haha gonna have to give them a call

 

[breety]

@ulrichgood Yea you’ll need to invest within the IRA yourself - a target date fund or three fund portfolio based on your age and risk tolerance are recommended for retirement savings

 

[ulrichgood]

@breety Thank you!